Latest Contributions

• What does race have to do with the death penalty in Texas?

  by Hannah Wiley Dec. 21, 2018

  More than 72 percent of those on death row in Texas are people of color. Studies show race plays a role in the state's harshest punishment. Full Story 

  Photo credit:  Texas Department of Criminal Justice

• Texas court throws out 1987 murder conviction; declares North Texas man "actually innocent"

  by Hannah Wiley Dec. 19, 2018

  The Court of Criminal Appeals said Steven Mark Chaney's conviction was based partly on faulty science. Full Story 

• A Texas school contractor says she lost her job because she won't promise not to boycott Israel. Now she's suing.

  by Hannah Wiley Dec. 17, 2018

  The school severed its contract with the speech pathologist because of state law banning Texas government contracts with companies that boycott Israel. Full Story 

  Photo credit:  Bob Daemmrich for The Texas Tribune

• Convicted murderer Alvin Braziel executed for killing Mesquite man and raping his wife

  by Hannah Wiley Updated: Dec. 11, 2018

  Braziel's attorneys failed to secure a delay in the execution after last-minute argument that prosecutorial conduct tainted his trail. He was the 13th and final inmate Texas put to death this year. Full Story 

  Photo credit:  TDCJ

• Report highlights the trauma that thousands of Texas families have experienced with incarceration

  by Hannah Wiley Dec. 7, 2018

  Researchers reviewed prison data and surveyed more than 4,000 adults this summer to determine how incarceration affects family members of prisoners. Full Story 

  Photo credit:  Callie Richmond for The Texas Tribune

• Texas executes Joseph Garcia, one of the "Texas Seven" prison escapees

  by Hannah Wiley Updated: Dec. 4, 2018

  Garcia was executed Tuesday night. He was the fourth of the "Texas Seven" inmates executed after the group escaped the Connally Unit in 2000 and killed Irving Police Officer Aubrey Hawkins during a Christmas Eve robbery. Full Story 

  Photo credit:  TDCJ

• Trump administration looks to Texas as it pushes a criminal justice reform bill

  by Hannah Wiley Dec. 3, 2018

  Prominent Texans in Washington are pushing for a criminal justice reform bill, and lawmakers are looking to the state as an example of how reform works. Full Story 

  Photo credit:  REUTERS/Carlos Barria

• Dallas grand jury indicts Amber Guyger, fired officer who killed Botham Jean in alleged apartment mixup

  by Hannah Wiley Nov. 30, 2018

  The grand jury decided to indict Guyger on a murder charge for the Sept. 6 killing of Jean, an unarmed black man. Full Story 

  Photo credit:  Kaufman County Sheriff's Office via REUTERS: Guyger/Facebook: Botham Shem Jean

• Report: Houston-based pharmacy is supplier of state's execution drugs

  by Hannah Wiley Nov. 28, 2018

  Greenpark Compounding Pharmacy has been selling Texas drugs for lethal injections for three and a half years, according to a BuzzFeed News report. Full Story 

  Photo credit:  iStock.com

• Advocates say the timing is right for independent oversight of Texas prisons

  by Hannah Wiley Nov. 26, 2018

  A bill aiming to detach the ombudsman from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice died in 2017. But news from the past year makes advocates hopeful that 2019 will be different. Full Story 

  Photo credit:  Martin do Nascimento for The Texas Tribune

• Texas Court of Criminal Appeals rules against death row inmate Jeff Wood

  by Hannah Wiley Nov. 21, 2018

  The court denied relief on Wednesday to Wood, who never killed anyone, granting the state the opportunity to set another execution date for the 1996 murder of a store clerk in Kerrville. Full Story 

• Texas executes Robert Moreno Ramos, amid pleas for case review

  by Hannah Wiley Updated: Nov. 14, 2018

  Lawyers for Ramos had argued that he wasn’t aware of his rights under an international treaty, and therefore didn't receive proper legal counsel during his trial and sentencing. Full Story 

  Photo credit:  TDCJ

• In Texas, the "rainbow wave" outpaces the blue one

  by Hannah Wiley Updated: Nov. 8, 2018

  Fourteen of 35 LGBTQ candidates won their races Tuesday night, and activists say the 2018 election will carve a path for a future "rainbow wave" in Texas. Full Story 

  Photo credit:  Campaign websites

• Justice Department will send election monitors to 3 Texas counties for Election Day

  by Hannah Wiley Nov. 5, 2018

  The monitors will be in Harris, Tarrant and Waller counties. Full Story 

  Photo credit:  Robin Jerstad for The Texas Tribune

• Undocumented immigrants say a better life – not children's citizenship – the main reason they come to Texas

  by Hannah Wiley Nov. 1, 2018

  While President Trump vows to end citizenship rights for children born to non-U.S. citizens through an executive order, political analysts and immigrants themselves say that wouldn't deter illegal immigration. Full Story 

  Photo credit:  Bob Daemmrich for The Texas Tribune

• Ted Cruz targets conservative Hispanics in deep-blue Rio Grande Valley

  by Teo Armus and Hannah Wiley Oct. 30, 2018

  The Rio Grande Valley has long been a Democratic stronghold. But U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz is trying to tap into an often overlooked conservative base in this stretch of the border in his re-election bid against U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke. Full Story 

  Photo credit:  Ulysses Romero for The Texas Tribune

• After ICE detained this migrant in Texas, her C-section scar ripped open and she was denied surgery for 4 months

  by Hannah Wiley Oct. 26, 2018

  A woman from Honduras crossed the Rio Grande and asked for asylum. For months, she said doctors in a detention center gave her only ibuprofen and antibiotics for a persistent open wound. Full Story 

  Photo credit:  Courtesy Ruby Powers

• Study says family separations are causing a mental health crisis in the Rio Grande Valley

  by Hannah Wiley Oct. 19, 2018

  Around 1,800 children in the Valley had a parent deported by immigration authorities in 2017, which causes what mental health experts say is long-lasting trauma and "toxic stress." Full Story 

  Photo credit:  Hannah Wiley/The Texas Tribune

• Hundreds of migrant kids haven't been reunited with their parents. What's taking so long?

  by Hannah Wiley Oct. 4, 2018

  Some 350 children separated from their migrant parents this summer have yet to be reunified, despite a court-ordered July 26 deadline to do it and endless hours of pro bono legal aid. About half of those kids are on track for reunification. Full Story 

  Photo credit:  Reynaldo Leal for The Texas Tribune

• Critics say new barriers on border bridge are meant to deter asylum-seekers

  by Hannah Wiley Oct. 1, 2018

  Agents on the McAllen-Hidalgo International Bridge now occupy a large physical barrier at the bridge's halfway point to manage the "influx of Central Americans seeking asylum." Full Story 

  Photo credit:  Verónica G. Cárdenas for The Texas Tribune